Cultural References
A list of all the in-universe cultural references. For out of universe cameos and Easter eggs, see Easter eggs and Cameos. Issue 1 *Hunter gives his step brother his copies of Grant Morrison comic books. The Invisibles, A book about secret agents and overlapping universes, is pointed out as the place to start. *Hunter and his step brother are playing GTA4 *Ike's "Brokeback bunkbeds" crack is a reference to the movie Brokeback Mountain, a movie about gay cowboys. This may be evidence of Ike's "gaydar" since Hisao is in fact a homosexual. *Zoe is reading "Teen Cosmo". However, Cosmo's actual teen magazine is named Cosmogirl. Issue 2 *When the detention room is filling with water, Hunter noted that they are "one dianoga away from the 'Trash Compactor Scene' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_wars Star Wars]". *Ike references Skulls and Bones *"Did you set off the fire alarm?" "What do I look like, Judd Nelson? (From Breakfast Club, a movie about a group of students in detention). Issue 3 *Ike references Lucy van Pelt from Charles Schultz's Peanuts comic strip, and says he finds them adorable. *Ike refers to Jade as a Suicide Girl Issue 4 *When discussing what they would do if they were home, Hunter says he'd be watching Blade Runner at The Bloor. *Hunter mentions that when he thought he was going to die, his thought was "at least I got to see how LOST ends before it happened" *"The Hour of release draws near" actually a line from a book called The Libertine. However, the MGA study hall doubts that this is where Spencer got the reference from. Issue 5 *In the variant cover featuring Hunter, he is wearing a Star Wars shirt underneath his school uniform and is reading a copy of Nick Spencer's Forgetless. *Gribbs says "I have such wonderful things to show you" which is a reference to Event Horizon, a movie about a rip in spacetime and alternate dimensions. *Zoe says that they should surrender before "these psychos get all clockwork orange-ey with us"- A reference to a movie where criminals are reprogrammed into better citizens. *Zoe refers to Casey as the “Fear-inducing leader,” could be a pun on “Fearless Leader” from Rocky and Bullwinkle. *When Hisao knocks out Nine, Hunter not only quotes Princess Leia ("Aren't you a little short to be a Stormtrooper?"), but mimics her pose from when she says the line. Issue 6 *Julie's alias "Christina Delassalle" is a character from Diabolique. Issue 7 *Zoe refers to Jade as "Bella" a reference to the emo protagonist of Twilight. *Zoe refers to Bad Lieutenant a film about an unethical cop. *Zoe refers to "going to a school in an Orwell novel", a reference to George Orwell's books on totalitarianism. Issue 8 *Hunter makes a reference to Dead Poet's Society, a movie about living life to the fullest while one can. *Hunter is singing to "Ambling Alp" by Yeasayer. Issue 10 *Ike calls Jade's rescue as "The Great Escape", A reference to the movie where Allied POWs escape from a German war camp. *Ike refers to Jade as "Plathesque". Sylvia Plath was a noted poet who wrote a lot about her depression. Issue 11 * Zoe compares herself and Ike to Veronica and Reggie from Archie Comics. * Abraham's funeral is a Jewish one as evident by the yarmulkes and the lack of a priest MGA Study Hall Special Edition #11 Nick Spencer. Issue 12 * There are posters for Bonnaroo and Lollapolooza on Lara's office wall. Issue 13 *Ike says "You know you're just going to find out he's your brother, and then feel very awkward about kissing him just to make me jealous", a reference to Star Wars. *When preparing to use the cave, Lara says "where we're going, we don't need roads", a reference to Back to the Future. Issue 15 *Hunter is worried about Zoe going "full Gogo Yubari on us" a reference to the killer schoolgirl from the movie Kill Bill *Maggie quotes the Lost Boys at Hunter *Maggie is a fan of Hammer House of Horror, a British TV series from the 80s. Issue 16 *Casey has a Foster the People poster on her wall. *In the last panel, the man in line behind Casey is holding the book Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. Issue 17 *Ike compares the cave to a "Burning maninstallation. *Ike compares Jade to Virginia Woolf. *After Jade says he "wouldn't understand", Ike fires back that he's not very up on his Meyer. *Ike references the movie Vanilla Sky when Jade asks if he believes in God. *The truck that drives past Jade's mother outside the diner partially reads: Pork Chop Express. This is the name of the truck in Big Trouble in Little China. Issue 21 *In the "birthday" scene, Guillaume is reading The Count of Monte Cristo. Written by Alexander Dumas, the novel is an adventure story set in Western Europe in the 18th century, where protagonist Edmond Dantes becomes the eponymous count and has revenge on people who betrayed him. Issue 23 * When talking about his father, Ike claims that Harry Chapin would understand. Harry Chapin wrote Cat's in the Cradle, a song about an awkward father-son relationship. Issue 24 *Ike cites Nelson Mandela, Aung Suu Kyi, and T.I. upon being released from jail. Issue 27 *Hunter references Futurama when talking about his time-travelling. In Futurama, the protagonist Philip J. Fry is accidentally frozen, and wakes up 1,000 years later, in the year 2999 AD. Issue 29 *A poster for Hunter's book club tells attendees to read Chew. Issue 31 *In the dormitory, Ike is reading The Last Man, an apocalyptic science-fiction novel by Mary Shelley which describes a world ravaged by plague. Shelley was also the author of "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus", a work widely considered to be the first science fiction novel. *Posters of real-world movies are hung all around the AV Club. These include posters for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Akira (1988 - Japanese variant), Alien (1979), Dark City (1998), Solaris (1972 - Polish variant), Total Recall (1990), and The Usual Suspects (1995). The movies, with the sole exception of noir thriller The Usual Suspects, are all set in the science fiction genre. *In the AV Club Meeting Room, Andres wears a t-shirt that reads "Han Shot First". This is a reference to a scene in Star Wars: A New Hope, where deuteragonist Han Solo shoots and kills another character. In subsequent re-releases of the film, the scene was controversially altered, prompting purists to insist that Han shot first. Issue 33 *Ike is still reading The Last Man by Mary Shelley. *They are studying Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five in class. Issue 34 *Jade has posters in her old room of My Chemical Romance and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. *Freaky Friday was a film starring Jamie Lee Curtis that involved a mother and daughter switching bodies. Issue 36 *Hunter is wearing a t-shirt with the logo of The Guild, a web series starring Felicia Day. *Hunter references "Psychic paper", a trope from the TV show Doctor Who. *The posters for Akira (1988 - Japanese variant), Dark City (1998), Solaris (1972 - Polish variant), Total Recall (1990), are seen again. Issue 47 *Akiko refers to the movie Beetlejuice *Guillaume wants the DJ to play music by the french label Kitsune, but the DJ thinks he said Kanye Issue 49 *Akiko is reading The Invisibles to Fortunato Medeiros Morning Glories Vol. 1 HC (MR) Deluxe Collection *On the cover, Hunter is reading a copy of Nick's Infinite Vacation #1 hidden behind his physics textbook. References Category:Comic Book Category:References Category:Compilation